CNN’s Dana Bash confronted Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) Sunday over Rep. Ilhan Omar’s (D-MN)’s visit to Columbia University, where she gave a statement about the pro-Palestinian protests.
Omar’s own daughter was suspended from Columbia-affiliated Barnard College last week after being arrested at the Gaza Solidarity Encampment on the Morningside Heights campus.
Omar was recorded saying, “I think it is really unfortunate that people don’t care about the fact that all Jewish kids should be kept safe and that we should not have to tolerate anti-Semitism or bigotry for all Jewish students, whether they are pro-genocide or anti-genocide.”
Bash asked Sanders, “She said some Jewish students are pro-genocide. Is that something that you’re comfortable with?”
“Well, I don’t know exactly — Look. What I think the essential point that Ilhan made, is that we do not want to see anti-Semitism in this country. And I think the word “genocide” is something that is being determined by the International Court of Justice,” Sanders said, continuing:
But, this is what I will say: I don’t think there’s any doubt that what Netanyahu is doing now, displacing 80% of the population in Gaza, is ethnic cleansing. That’s what it is. Pushing out huge numbers of people, and now we’re looking at the possibility of an attack
on Rafah, where people have gone for, so-called, is a safety zone. So, what’s going on there, again, to my mind, is outrageous. And as you’ve indicated, I strongly oppose us funding for Netanyahu’s war machine.
“I know that you said that to president Biden, that you were very concerned about the U.S. continuing to send aid and weaponry to Israel. What was his response?” Bash asked.
“I’m not going to talk about the personal conversations I have with the president, but I would say that I think, as a majority of the American people do, that I do not want to be complicit in the humanitarian disaster that Netanyahu is causing.”
Watch the clip above via CNN.